Our strategic direction

The Auditor-General’s strategic intentions to 2025 is our long-term strategic planning document. It sets out the impacts we want to achieve and the outcomes we are working towards. The ultimate outcome we are seeking is that Parliament and the public have trust and confidence in the public sector.

Our strategy is organised around four strategic shifts:

1. Focus more on examining how well the public sector achieves positive change for New Zealanders.
2. Help New Zealanders become better informed about public sector performance and accountability.
3. Be more active in sharing insights about what “good” looks like.
4. Help improve the public sector accountability system.

The progress we have made on our strategic shifts is described in the performance results for the services we deliver. We also describe the main areas we have focused on to improve our organisation and carry out our work.

Our Annual plan 2021/22 sets out our discretionary programme of work for the year. In this report, we describe our progress against our annual plan. We regularly review the work in our annual plan so that it remains relevant and responsive to the dynamic and changing operating environment. Appendix 4 provides a summary of progress made during the year on the work programme set out in our Annual plan 2021/22.

The key strategic risks we manage

Our key strategic risks are:

• loss of independence;
• audit failure;
• loss of capability; and
• loss of reputation.

We manage these risks through the processes that support our work. Our Audit and Risk Committee also provides insight and advice to help us manage risk. See Appendix 1 for the Committee’s report for the year ended 30 June 2022.